An alumnus of Washington State University's Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, Lewis is a sports journalist working at Sportspress Northwest. He spent his first three years in Pullman at the school newspaper writing his weekly column "Backrow Banter" while covering the WSU baseball team.

His opinion piece in the fall of 2011 on Cougars football, "The Campus That Cried Wulff" received attention from media outlets throughout the Northwest. The column called for the immediate dismissal of former WSU head coach Paul Wulff.

With a family background in the newspaper industry, Lewis's passion for objective sports journalism wins out over passion for his favorite teams.

Lewis graduated cum laude from WSU in May. His senior year on the Palouse was spent covering Mike Leach's tumultuous first year coaching the Cougars.

At Sportspress Northwest, Lewis will help cover the Storm, Mariners and Seahawks before returning to Pullman in August to cover WSU football's fall camp.

The Seattle Storm's season opener against the Los Angeles Sparks drew a crowd of about 10,000 into KeyArena's lower bowl to see all-everything point guard Sue Bird help the Storm build a 21-point, second-half lead with a mix of mid-range jumpers and drives through the lane.

So much went wrong for the Mariners from April to mid-July, it's tiresome to dissect how they entered the All-Star Break at 41-48, with the second-worst record in the American League.

There was veteran second baseman Rickie Weeks' failed attempt to become a left fielder before he was cut in June. There was 2B Robinson Cano, making $24 million this year, posting a pedestrian .660 OPS and making a series of lackadaisical baserunning mistakes that a stomach parasite and acid reflux couldn't explain away.

In their final game before the All-Star break, they were a special brand of awful. The sloppy 10-3 loss to the Anaheim Angels Sunday afternoon at Safeco Field (box score) was so filled with miscues that manager Lloyd McClendon issued a post-game challenge to his players.

It came with one out in the top of the second inning on a 3-2, 95-mile-per-hour fastball to Tigers C Alex Avila. Ball four. Take your base. No big deal. The game was scoreless and Walker, 6-1 with a 1.68 ERA over his past seven starts entering Tuesday, was cruising in another effort sure to affirm his rebound from a disastrous first two months of the regular season.

Nelson Cruz was named the American League All-Star team's starting designated hitter Sunday after narrowly beating out former Mariner Kendrys Morales, now with the Royals, in an online vote conducted by fans.

The announcement came Sunday on ESPN after the Mariners edged the Athletics, 2-1.

Manager Lloyd McClendon will miss the Mariners' three-game series starting Monday at Safeco Field against the Detroit Tigers, his old club prior to coming to Seattle, to attend his sister's funeral in Indiana. Bench coach Trent Jewett will serve as interim manager until McClendon returns for Thursday's series opener against the Los Angeles Angels.

When the Seattle Mariners sent backup C Welington Castillo, reliever Dominic Leone and prospects to the Arizona Diamondbacks June 3 for DH Mark Trumbo and LHP Vidal Nuno, the trade was panned by those who looked at Trumbo's on-base percentage and winced.

Sure, Trumbo can hit the ball out of the ballpark, but his OBP had eclipsed the .300 mark just one time in the 29-year-old's big-league career.

UNIVERSITY PLACE -- A caddie rarely holds his own press conference after a major golf tournament, but when Michael Greller addressed the media following Jordan Spieth's U.S. Open win Sunday night outside the Chambers Bay media tent, it was a no-brainer.

Greller is Spieth's caddie and confidante, a former school teacher from University Place that's helped Spieth rise to stardom after first caddying for the 21-year-old at the 2011 U.S. Junior Amateur at Gold Mountain in Bremerton.

UNIVERSITY PLACE -- Hours before Dustin Johnson's unthinkable three-putt that lost him the U.S. Open Sunday, there was Rory McIlroy, who began the day eight shots out of the lead, draining a 70-foot birdie on the par 4 13th hole to move to -6.

It moved McIlroy to -2 for the tournament, with the par-4 16th and par-5 18th remaining. Both were easy birdie and possible eagle holes that could have sent the No. 1 player in the world to a final-round 62, which would have marked the best score in major championship history.

UNIVERSITY PLACE -- In a scathing indictment, PGA Tour player Billy Horschel blasted the greens and the fan experience at Chambers Bay Sunday after shooting a final-round 67 to finish the tournament at four-over 284.

UNIVERSITY PLACE -- Tiger Woods continued his roll around rock bottom Friday at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, trudging to a second-round 76 (+6), missing the cut at a major championship for the second time in his last three tries.

UNIVERSITY PLACE -- Jason Day tumbled to the ground on the final hole -- No. 9 -- of his round Friday at the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay because of apparent vertigo symptoms.

After a short delay while Day, lying on his back, was tended to by medical staff, he rose shakily to his feet and resumed, managing to bogey by hitting a sand shot from the green-side bunker to about 10 feet before two-putting for a four on the 237-yard par 3.

RENTON – "Don't ask, don't tell" would be a fitting motto for Russell Wilson's ongoing contract negotiations with the Seattle Seahawks. The franchise quarterback simply wouldn’t budge Thursday when asked about a potential new deal after their only minicamp practice wrapped up at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center.

UNIVERSITY PLACE -- The Most Interesting Man in the Golf World wasn't interested in talking. At least, not after hitting balls and going through a television interview Wednesday at Chambers Bay in preparation for the U.S. Open.

"Not right now," Miguel Angel Jimenez told a young reporter who walked up and asked for an interview as the 51-year-old headed toward the practice putting green.

UNIVERSITY PLACE -- Rory McIlroy didn't back down Tuesday at Chambers Bay when a reporter asked if he can relate to LeBron James, who claimed he was the best basketball player in the world Sunday after the Cleveland Cavaliers lost Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

Does, McIlroy, the No. 1 golfer in the world, view himself with the same confidence as James does his game?

UNIVERSITY PLACE -- There is one certainty about the 115th U.S Open this week at Chambers Bay: The golf world will ooh and ah at the scenery.

Panoramic shots of Puget Sound, Olympic Mountains, Mount Rainier and the undulating links-style course designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. will fill the Fox Sports TV broadcast. Temperatures are expected to stay in the 70s with only partial cloud cover and a slight chance of rain.

The longest day in golf turned into one of the seminal moments of Michael Putnam's career.

Putnam shot 12-under and tied for first Monday in the 36-hole sectional round at Brookside Golf & Country Club and The Lakes Golf & Country Club (Columbus, OH.) to qualify for the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.

It will take more than one great start for RHP Taijaun Walker to erase the stats he compiled during a terrible May.

A terrible start to the season, really. The 22-year-old carried ugly totals into Friday night. He hadn't won in more than a month. The ERA was more than seven. The high expectations borne of a standout spring that won him a spot in the rotation -- mostly gone.

Thank you! Art Thiel and Steve Rudman

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Kirsten Kendrick's Q. & A. with Thiel can be heard every Friday during Morning Edition at 5:35am and 7:35am and again that same day on All Things Considered at 4:45pm. It also airs Saturday at 6:35am and 9:35am.